


Little Poppy Seed

by OniZenmaru



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Leon and Raihan being good dads, M/M, Parenthood, Trans Character, Trans Dande | Leon, Trans Male Character, or at least trying to be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23905915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OniZenmaru/pseuds/OniZenmaru
Summary: They'd figure this whole parenting thing out, even if it takes them a couple of years.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 15
Kudos: 91





	1. Late Night (Age 5)

**Author's Note:**

> Yay, my first pokemon fic!
> 
> I don't usually get super invested in OC kids, but this idea had latched onto me for MONTHS and I couldn't focus on my other kbdn fic because of it. So! Here we are!

“Daddy…?”

Leon has long adopted the habits of a light sleeper, so he’s awake (though groggy) as soon as he hears himself being called. A quick glance at the clock on the nightstand shows that it’s 3 AM, far too late for his 5-year-old daughter Hina to be up, and he can’t help but frown a bit. Did she have a nightmare? Raihan stirs next to him, and Leon leans over to mutter that he’ll take care of it.

Slipping out of bed, he makes his way over to the doorway where his stands, her little hands clenching at her nightgown as he looks down at her feet. Next to her is her now constant companion—and former bane to his and Raihan’s existence—a Deino, who gently nudges her forward.

They had been _horrified_ when she’d brought it home after playing outside with friends, because they knew how prone to biting the little pokemon was. Even after they explained to her why she couldn’t keep it, Hina still cried when Raihan took it away so he could release it into the Wild Area.

Three times.

Raihan had to release it on _three separate occasions_ because it kept coming back the very next day and sitting near the front of their house. Hell, it even managed to escape the nursery in Hammerlocke castle after Raihan concluded that raising it with his other dragons might’ve been for the best.

Frustration soon blossomed into concern when he watched his husband gently question their daughter, asking if the Deino had bitten or scratched her. She shook he head, though when she told them that all it had done was ‘give her kisses’ (‘ _like Daddy’s Char Char does!_ ’) a look of unfortunate understanding crossed Raihan’s face.

‘ _Once it gets a taste of something it likes_ ’ he said, ‘ _it’ll never forget it or its scent_ ’. So, they reluctantly allowed the little dragon to stay, much to the delight of their daughter, but made sure to keep a close eye on it. Surprisingly, the Deino snapped at everyone _but_ Hina, and once it had mapped out the layout of the house by slamming into damn near everything, it seemed to mellow out.

Despite being less of a problem then they originally thought it’d be, the Deino was incredibly stubborn, something Raihan had jokingly said made it fit right in with the family (he was right of course but Leon choose not to tell him). When it decided to follow their daughter everywhere, even to school, there was very little he or his husband could do about it.

Yes, it stayed outside the school gates and waited for her, but that didn’t stop the phone calls from concerned staff. Battling and catching it could’ve saved them a lot of headaches, but there were two big problems that came along with that route. One, it dodged pokeballs with very little effort, and two, Hina would throw an absolute fit whenever they started a battle with it.

Since none of their pokemon liked to see her upset, they always stopped their assault and tried to console her to the best of their abilities. They nearly threw in the towel until their daughter asked if she could try, and well, what did they have to lose? She went on a ten minute rant about how comfy the inside of a pokeball was, and all the Deino did was sit on the floor, looking as if it was listening to her with rapt attention.

He and Raihan watched in stunned silence when the little dragon nosed the pokeball to open it, not even putting up a struggle when it was engulfed in a red light and sucked inside. Hina held up the pokeball— _that didn’t even shake_ —and paraded round the house chanting ‘dragon tamer’ after hearing him call her one. Of course, the Deino didn’t exactly _stay_ in its pokeball, but they already knew it was a little escape artist, so no one was surprised whenever it broke out.

The whole situation wasn’t ideal, but at the very least it stuck to its dragon nature and was fiercely protective over the things it cared about. Also…throughout the whole ordeal he got to see Raihan sulk about not being able to give Hina her first pokemon, and Leon knew he did a poor job hiding his amusement.

What he doesn’t find amusing is their daughter clearly in distress, so Leon quickly kneels in front of her, his hands gently resting on her shoulders as he gives her a small smile.

“Hey, Sweetie,” he says, voice light so she doesn’t think she did anything wrong by waking him up, “What’s wrong? Did you have a scary dream? Or does something hurt?”

Oh Arceus…if she’s sick, he’s taking her to the hospital immediately, even if it means sprinting there barefoot. The incident two years ago still feels like a fresh, raw wound that weighs heavily on his mind, Leon he does _not_ want a repeat of it. She glances up at him—golden eyes meeting his own—before returning her gaze to the ground, and the little head shake she does makes Leon to let out the shaky breath he’d been holding in.

“Um…I-”

There’s a bright flash outside of the window followed by a loud crack of thunder, and Leon thinks that if he hadn’t been holding her, Hina would’ve bolted. She looks utterly terrified, and her Deino makes a distressed noise while trying to nose her hand. Leon hadn’t even noticed the pitter-patter of rain against the window, but now that he has, he scoops his daughter up in his arms. She clings to his neck for dear life, and he rubs soothing circles along her back when she starts to sniffle.

“Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you” he coos, “Do you want to sleep with me and your Papa?”

Her dark locks—the same shade as Raihan’s but the curl definitely belongs to Leon—tickle his nose when she nods, and Leon wastes no time heading over to the bed. He hears the telltale sound of little dragon feet following him, and given the circumstances he thinks it’s alright to temporarily lift the ‘no pokemon in bed’ rule. Well…it was less of a rule and more common sense along the line of ‘don’t let pokemon ruin perfectly good furniture’, implemented when Goodra had left a sticky mess on the sheet that had taken two washes to get rid of.

Hina still clings to him even as he lies back down, and he feels miserable every time he feels her tense up whenever a loud clap of thunder is unleashed from the sky. Despite how much his chest aches, Leon continues to comfort her as much as he can, even humming a lullaby he recalls his mother singing to him. He doesn’t quite remember the words—something about a little Wooloo who refused to go to bed—but the melody has stuck with him for years.

Leon makes a mental note to ask his mother about the lyrics the next time she called.

He isn’t sure how much time passes, but eventually Hina’s breathing begins to even out enough that he knows that she’s finally fallen asleep. The tension doesn’t immediately leave his body, mind racing as he thinks about how _powerless he is when his daughter needs him the most_ -

“Hey…”

Ah…

There’s a hand against his cheek, big and warm, and his intrusive thoughts come to a screeching halt. The tight coil buried deep in his chest finally begins to loosen as he glances over at his husband, and even though he can make out the exhaustion in those teal eyes of his, he can also see the underlining concern. Then again, he can’t recall a time when Raihan _wasn’t_ worried about him to some degree, even when they were kids. He was always looking out for him…and that thought alone brings a small smile to his face.

“You two okay…?” he asks, and Leon quickly stops himself from giving his usual response.

There’s no reason for him to try and ease Raihan’s anxieties when he couldn’t even get his under control. Reaching up, he covers the hand against his cheek with his own, a small sigh leaving his lips.

“We will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hina - Derived from the word 'Hinageshi', the Japanese name for the common poppy. Also derived from the alternate name for Lawsonia Inermis, or the 'henna tree', which is used to make henna dye.


	2. God Slayer (Age 5)

Leon was concerned about the overcast when he left Wyndon, and by the time he stepped off the train in Hammerlocke, it had turned into a full-blown thunderstorm. Stepping out of the station, his lack of umbrella had been the least of his concerns, and the entire way back home he worried his bottom lip. Since it’s well after 4 he knows Raihan has already picked Hina up from school, so he can already picture her having a complete breakdown while her father tried to console her.

He knows Raihan is more than capable of handling things on his own, but the thought of their daughter in any kind of distress causes him to quicken his pace. Leon is drenched from head to toe by the time he makes it home, the wrong turn he took not at all helping. Maybe looking like a waterlogged Purrloin will work in his favor and instantly cheer Hina up…but he highly doubts it.

The first thing he notices when stepping inside is that all the lights are off, and a quick flip of the light switch near the door tells Leon everything he needs to know. A power outage…It must’ve happened within the last 20 minutes since the backup generator should’ve kicked in. The second thing he notices is that no one has come down to greet him; more often than not their daughter would come running the moment she heard the door open, and even though she’s a tiny thing, the sheer force of her body slamming against his was enough to knock the wind out of him.

Sometimes one of Raihan’s pokemon would join her, and their excitement combined with Hina’s usually meant Leon wasn’t getting away unscathed. But they were nowhere to be found, and that caused his stomach to churn uncomfortably. Leon tries to calm his racing thoughts by taking a deep breath, not wanting to jump to conclusions just yet. Everything is fine…he’ll just call out and someone will surely answer him.

“I’m home-”

He hears Hina scream and his heart drops.

Leon sprints his way up the stairs, nearly stumbling on the last two steps as his braces himself for the worse case scenario. What if she’s hurt? What if someone got in? What about Raihan? Oh Arceus, what if someone hurt him to get to her? What if…? _What if_ …? **_What if_** …? He stops right in front of Hina’s door, one shaky hand on the knob while the other holds Charizard’s pokeball. Leon steels himself for whatever he’s about to see beyond the door, and after a second, he holds his breath before barging inside.

“-2, 1, and go!”

He watches with wide eyes as his husband, their daughter, and her Deino scream (well _roar_ ) out of Hina’s open window.

“RAAAWR! GO AWAY YA MEANIE POKEMON! OR I’LL VAN…v-van…”

“Vanquish.”

“YEAH! I’LL DO THAT TO YA!”

Leon can’t help but snort at her enthusiasm, which alerts everyone in the room to his presence.

“DADDY’S HOME!” she gleefully yells, and Leon only has a second to brace himself before she barrels into him.

He grunts at the impact but recovers quickly so he can scoop Hina up in his arms.

“Hey, Sweetie,” he says, and he can feel the tremor in his hands begin to settle. “What are you and your Papa doing?”

“We’re making the mean thunder pokemon go away! And if it doesn’t, me and Ein are gonna vanquick it!” she says, her little baby fangs (not sharp thank Arceus) on full display as she grins from ear to ear.

Arching a brow, he directs a questioning—but amused—look over to his husband, who in turn gives him an embarrassed, lopsided grin.

“Well…I told her Thundurus was responsible for the bad weather, and if we scared it off, things would clear up,” he says while closing the window, “If it didn’t, one of us would have to go on an epic quest to vanquish it.”

Raihan certainly knows how to play on their daughter’s love of fantasy, and Leon is more than thankful for his ability to do so. He’d expected to see Hina to be a sobbing wreck when he came home, maybe have to coax her out from under her bed like he had last month. But here she is, all smiles while rambling about being a knight and slaying the ‘meanie pokemon’ and how funny she thought he looked drenched even while the storm continued to rage outside. Walking over, he stands on balls of his feet so he can kiss his husband’s cheek, who in turn kisses him on the lips.

“Hey! I want kisses too!” Hina whined, cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

“Of course! The brave knight gets all the kisses!” Raihan says, and the look he gives him is all the prompting Leon’s needs.

They begin to pepper her cheeks with kisses while making the most obnoxious kissy noises, and Hina just squeals and giggles with delight at their dumb antics. An idea suddenly pops into Leon’s head, one he mulls over for a few seconds before deeming it harmless to act on.

“Hm, a knight should have the proper attire if they’re going on a quest,” he nods to himself, and Hina gives him a curious look as he sets her down, “attire…fit for a champion.”

With that Leon turns on his heel and leaves, and he’s thankful when the lights flicker back on as he makes his way to his and Raihan’s room. He doesn’t have a particular aversion to telling his daughter about his time as Galar’s champion; if anything, he doesn’t think she’d understand or even care about who he was before she was even born. One day he’d give her the full details, but for now Leon more than satisfied with being known as just ‘daddy’.

After changing out of his wet clothes, he makes a beeline for the closet, and it doesn’t take him long to locate the rectangular box on the top shelf. Despite not having worn what’s in the box for some time, Leon made sure it got a good wash every few months, so his nose isn’t assaulted with the smell of musty fabric once he pulls the lid back. Staring down at the neatly folded cape, a strong sense of nostalgia overtakes him even if his run as champion was nowhere near flawless.

It was a lot to thrust upon a child all at once, and Leon remembers this cape weighing heavily on his shoulders, a constant reminder the he was no longer a regular trainer. One reason he loved battling Raihan back in the day was because he allowed the cape to fall victim to the gym leader’s sandstorm, and it felt like the piece of fabric took his title right along with it. When he stood against Raihan he didn’t feel like Champion Leon—not really—he felt like Rival Leon, someone who could be just as ferocious and battle hungry as the man standing across the pitch.

Ugh…sometimes he wonders how he hadn’t figured out he had a raging crush on Raihan sooner with everything he thought about him. _‘You’re about as dense as a brick wall, Lee’_ Sonia had said to him once, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and well…she wasn’t necessarily _wrong_. If it wasn’t about pokemon battles, it just flew over his head, but he’s gotten better throughout the years since becoming chairman.

Slinging the cape over his arm, Leon can’t help but marvel at how it weighs next to nothing now. However, he makes it all the way to the doorway before pausing, a sudden thought catching him off guard. Would there ever come a time when his daughter would bare the same weight he had in the past? Granted things had drastically changed since Rose was in charge (Leon had made damn sure of that), being champion is still no easy feat. What if…what if…

Leon quickly slaps his cheeks—the same way he does before a match—to derail that train of thought. Hina’s only 5 for Arceus’ sake! There’s no point in speculating about something so far in the future, something that might not even _happen_ at that. He’d never push her be a gym challenger or trainer or _anything_ she didn’t want to be, and he’d long since silently promised that he’d support her in whatever endeavor she chose to pursue when she was older.

For now, he had a cape to deliver for a brave knight.

Taking a few deep breaths, Leon calms himself down enough to continue the short trip to Hina’s room. Raihan gives him a surprised look once he lays eyes on what Leon’s holding, but the amused quirk of his lip tells him he isn’t upset. Getting down on one knee, he motions Hina over, who bridges the small gap between them without any hesitation. Her eyes practically sparkle with wonder, and from the way she bounces on her feet, he knows her little body is brimming with excitement.

“Sir Hina, I bestow onto you the cape of a champion,” he begins as he brings the cape the rest on her tiny shoulders in the most dramatic way possible, “May it aid you on your quest to vanquish Thundurus!”

The hug he receives is tight enough that he gives of a small ‘oof’, but he doesn’t mind since his daughter’s repeated thank yous is enough to make up for it. She sprints out of the room with a roar, and her Deino nips at the end of the cape so it can follow behind her. For a split-second Leon fears it might treat it as a snack, but little dragon seems more concerned about keeping the piece of fabric from dragging on the ground then devouring it.

He tells her to be careful so she doesn’t trip, though his concern does nothing to wipe the little smile from his lips. Raihan comes to stand next to him, and the two of them watch as their daughter twirls and bounces around while proudly proclaiming that she’d fight Thundurus with her new magic cape. The realization is slow, but once it dawns on Leon what the two of them had done, he pinches the brim of his nose with a groan.

“…Rai.”

“Mhm.”

“Did we just…encourage her to slay, not even _catch_ , an actual deity…?”

“We sure did…A+ parenting I say.”

He tries his best not to whine—he really does—but as soon as it leaves him, his husband throws his head back and laughs out loud. Yeah…A+ parenting alright…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raihan has zero issue telling his kid to defy (a) god


	3. How I Met Your Father (Age 6)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading!

“Papa, how did you and Daddy meet?”

Raihan whips his head around just in time to see Leon damn near choke on his coffee, and he doesn’t even bother to hide the grin on his face. Oh what a story that is…It isn’t a lie to say that Raihan has been waiting for this moment, waiting for Hina to ask that very question so he could tell his daughter the absolutely _hilarious_ tale of how he and Challenger Leon became acquainted. Once he finally stops coughing, his husband sends him a pleading look, one that holds an underlining threat that Raihan is all too familiar with.

This is one of the few times he doesn’t mind incurring Leon’s wrath.

“Well…” he begins while turning off the stove, and he pointedly doesn’t look in Leon’s direction as he brings a plate of pancakes over and sets it down in front of Hina, “during our first meeting, your Daddy really **_fell_** for me.”

He hears Leon give off a loud groan, and the ‘thud’ that follows is the telltale sound of his forehead meeting the table. At Hina’s confused look, he begins to elaborate.

Having earned his second badge during the Gym Challenge, Raihan began to make his way through the mines in order to reach Motostoke Outskirts. Once he finally made it out, he decided to spend the rest of the evening training his pokemon before making camp. While trying to chase down an Impidimp, he stopped dead in his tracks as the sight of a Charmander standing at the base of a tree.

At the time he had most, not all, of the Galarian pokedex memorized, but he knew for sure Charmanders were _not_ native to the region. Needless to say, Raihan was excited to see one. The bag it was guarding was a good indicator that it belonged to someone, but that didn’t stop him from snapping a few pictures of it once he was close enough. He only stopped gushing when he heard rustling from the branches above him, and he looked up just in time for-

“WHAM! He fell right on top of me,” he says, grinning all the while.

“Really?! Daddy fell on you?!” Hina gasps, which only makes Raihan’s grin widen.

“Yup, gave me a bloody nose too.”

“I apologized for that.”

“And you didn’t _stop_ apologizing for a solid five minutes while you cried your little eyes out.”

His nose didn’t even bleed for that long, but there Leon was, crying like _he_ had been the one who had another kid fall on top of them. Raihan only got him to stop by saying that everything would be forgiven if he cooked them curry. Leon had been grateful, but little did he know he had invited disaster right into his life. He should’ve known something was wrong when Leon started mixing random berries together along with way too much spice mix, and _especially_ when the smoke from the pot turned _black_.

“After taking one bite of that curry, my stomach had never been so unhappy before. I saw my entire 11 years of life flash before my eyes-”

“ _Oh my Arceus, it wasn’t that bad!_ ” Leon groans out, sounding absolutely miserable.

“Daddy! It was very mean of you to poison Papa!” Hina says with an angry (and adorable) pout, arms crossed as he gives her father the best judgmental look she can muster up.

“I-It wasn’t on purpose- wait, I didn’t poison him! I’m just…bad at cooking.”

‘Bad’ is an understatement.

While there’s no arguing that Leon’s possesses an amazing talent for pokemon battles, but that talent doesn’t exactly translate to the more mundane aspects of his life. To put it simply: Leon was a walking disaster outside of battle. Every time he ran into Leon and Sonia during their Gym Challenge, she looked so relieved to have someone else actually capable of cooking to take the burden off her shoulders for a short while.

He decided to join them permanently when they all were in Circhester, when he had to outright haul Leon away from the campfire so he and Sonia could cook in peace. One thing Hina certainly gotten from Leon was his pout, because he vividly remembers seeing the same look she’s wearing on a much younger Leon when he was told to sit on a log and be patient. He _hated_ sitting still, something Raihan knew very well, so he promised to battle with him after dinner if he behaved.

He can’t help but smile as he recalls the blinding smile he received from a very fidgety Leon.

“But wait…why was Daddy in the tree in the first place?” Hina asks, her attention directed back at him.

“Even back then your Daddy was terrible with directions, so he thought if he climbed a tree he could see where he was going.”

“Hey! It would’ve worked if the branch hadn’t snapped!”

And there it is, the little pout he knows oh so well.

Their daughter is more than aware of Leon’s poor sense of direction, and more than once _she_ had been the one to stop him from going in the wrong direction. There was something deeply amusing about a six-year-old navigating the streets of Hammerlocke better than Leon, who had moved there well before Hina was even born. One time she said Ein was better with directions than him, and Leon had spent 10 minutes on the floor wallowing in self-pity, their daughter oblivious to the critical blow she’d dealt him.

Raihan is more than thankful she hadn’t inherited that unfortunate trait from her father…now only time would tell if she’d be as tall as he was, something he desperately hopes didn’t happen. Being this tall has its perks, but they don’t always outweigh the downsides (his poor forehead learned that the hard way).

“The next morning, I held your Daddy’s hand allll the way to the Budew Drop Inn,” Raihan says, clearly very proud of himself.

“And then we found Auntie Sonia, the end-”

“She chewed you out something fierce for wandering off on your own, and you really thought hiding behind me would save you.”

“I’ll admit I deserved it, but she didn’t have to throw a pokeball at me…”

“Her aim was impeccable.”

“Oh, it _still_ is.”

“Oho? I’d love to hear what you did recently to deserve that.”

“Why does it have to be my fault-?!”

“Anyways, we- uh…Sweetheart?”

Where their daughter should be is an empty seat. Being so absorbed in the conversation, he hadn’t even heard her chair move back. Wait…from the looks of it the chair is in the same position, and Raihan is sure he’d given her a full pancake, yet there’s only half of one of her plate. The sound of giggling catches his attention, and he glances back over to Leon who looks equal parts amused and confused. He cocks a brow when another giggle fills the silence, and it takes him a second to realize it’s coming from under the table.

He motions for Leon to follow his lead, and the two of them lift the tablecloth in order to see what in the world is happening down there. They find Hina sitting next to Ein, who is happily chomping on a piece of the missing pancake, as well as both of the trouble making Dreepy that belong to Leon’s Dragapult. One of them is trying to grab the other’s piece of pancake despite its mouth clearly being stuffed with its own, both of them whining the entire time.

Raihan clears his throat in order to get everyone’s attention, and all four of them immediately stop what they’re doing. The Dreepy that had been trying to protect its little piece of pancake quickly shoves it in its mouth before vanishing into the floor with its sibling.

“You know the rules: no people food for the pokemon when they haven’t finished their own,” he says, earning him another pout from his daughter.

“I know…but Ein said he really, really wanted a piece! Then Dreepy came over, so I had to give them some so they didn’t take Ein’s!” Hina says, and he hears Leon snort next to him.

“Oh really? He told you?” Leon asks, and it’s not hard to tell he’s trying his best to keep a straight face.

“Well…no…but!” she takes a moment to thin her answer over with an adorable tilt of her head, “I can tell, ‘cause I feel it…in my jellies!”

“In your _what_?” they say in unison, though Leon ends up covering his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“My jellies!”

The doesn’t explain a thing, but Raihan ends up deflating. Call him a pushover but can’t bring himself to stay mad at her for long, especially after saying something like that, and Leon doesn’t look in any better shape to play ‘rule enforcer’. In the grand scheme of things it’s inconsequential, and Leon clearly feels the same since he’s now tickling their daughter. Still, Raihan makes a mental note to give her a nice, big scoop of peas tonight for dinner.

The three of them come from under the table to return to their respective seats, and all the while he notices Leon giving him A Look. That can’t be good…

“Hina Darling, did I ever tell you about how your Papa proposed to me?”

A cold sweat breaks out on the back of his neck.

 _Oh dear sweet Arceus, **no**_.


	4. Baby's First Battle (age 7)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first pokemon battle I've ever written, so I apologize if it sucks.

Just like with her father, it was easy for Raihan to know when something is bothering Hina. Then again, she hadn’t been hiding that something had displeased her the moment he picked her up from school. The frown she wore was deep, but whenever he asked if something was wrong, she’d just make a sound of frustration (which sounded suspiciously like a growl). Halfway home he decided it was probably best to wait until her irritation died down a bit, because her stubborn strike was enough to rival his and Leon’s combined.

Raihan hadn’t seen her this upset since she found out Charizard wasn’t a dragon type.

While Hina watched her cartoons—only an hour and then it was homework time—Leon called to say that he’d just gotten off the phone with the principal of her school, and Raihan felt his stomach drop. The last time they’d gotten a call from that man it’d be about their daughter getting into a fight with another kid who said she had ‘dragon cooties’. While they did give her the whole ‘fighting is bad’ speech, neither he nor Leon had been _that_ upset with her, especially after learning she hadn’t been the one to throw the first punch.

So yes, the principal calling didn’t exactly bode well, so he braced himself for the worse. However, he was surprised to hear that the principal had spent the entire call enthusiastically telling him about the school’s upcoming ‘Field Day’ event. It was a class verse class mock tournament that served as a way to evaluate each student’s progress as well as have them battle in a safe, controlled environment. The man on the other end of the line hadn’t hid how much he wanted him and Leon to attend, saying that it would be an honor for them to grace their halls.

‘ _I want to flaunt that I know the Chairman of the League and the strongest Gym Leader in Galar to the press’_ is all Leon had heard, and it sadly wouldn’t be the first time a staff member from Hina’s school had tried to use their fame for personal gain.

At the very least it hadn’t involved their daughter directly; it was one thing to shamelessly kiss their asses in front of the press, it was another to parade Hina around like she was some kind of prop. It’d happened two years ago, and thankfully the paparazzi who’d been there decided to alert them about the whole ordeal rather than publish the pictures. He and Leon had promptly removed their daughter from that school, but not before giving the staff members the verbal lashing they deserved.

An assessment didn’t seem like something that’d upset Hina to such a degree, so he was still had little grasp on what had gotten her so upset. After explaining the situation to Leon, they both agree to wait until he returned home, which would give Hina time to cool off so they could confront her together. There were certain situations that had a higher rate of success if the two of them worked together, and finding out if they needed to storm the school the next day because something bad happened to their daughter seemed like one of those situations.

It also allowed them to catch the other if they stumbled, because they may have raised Hina to age 7, but they weren’t totally convinced they were doing this whole parenting thing correctly.

Raihan used the time waiting for his husband to get dinner started, and all the while Hina silently doing her homework at the table. He tried asking her the usual questions— _‘how was your day?’, ‘did you learn anything interesting?’, ‘did you like your lunch?‘,_ etc—but he was met with single word answers or hums. Well, no one could fault him for trying. By the time Leon came home the curry was simmering on the stove while Raihan attempted to help Hina with her math homework, which had somehow evolved into a conversation about morals.

_‘If you catch 127 Applin and Jimmy takes 73, how many do you have left?’_

_‘…127 because I take them back.’_

_‘Er, you can’t take them back.’_

_‘Why not? Jimmy can’t just take my pokemon, that’s mean.’_

_‘I mean…you’re not wrong.’_

_‘And why does Jimmy get to have more Applin than me when_ I _caught all of them?’_

_‘Sweetheart-’_

Thankfully, Leon stepped in and explained that the imaginary Jimmy was only borrowing her pokemon, and even though her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit, Hina ultimately dropped the subject. She was a bit more talkative during dinner, but given that the frown from before near really left her lips, it was clear that something was still bothering her. Leon would send him concerned ‘I see what you mean’ glances from across the table every now and then, and after dinner as they cleaned the dishes, they decided to speak with Hina as soon as they were done.

They don’t have to go far to find her; Hina used her time after dinner to tend to Ein, and when she wasn’t trying to tire him out by playing with him, she was attempting to make him the most well-groomed Deino in Hammerlocke. She ways relocated to the living no matter what she did, so he and Leon seated themselves on the couch across from the one she’s currently brushing Ein on. ‘Absolutely spoiled’ is the first thing that comes to mind as Raihan watches Ein let out a content huff, because if there was one thing the Deino loved, it was getting the fur on his neck brushed.

As much as he didn’t want to disturb such a peaceful scene, but they’ve been putting this off for long enough.

“Hina, we need to talk to you about something,” he says, which causes her to slow her movements.

“I got a call from Mr. Berry,” Leon begins, and Hina's frown deepens, “he told me about Field Day.”

“Sweetheart, do you not want to participate?” Raihan asks, and he hates seeing her shrink into herself.

A silence settles between the three of them, and from the corner of his eye he notices Leon tightly gripping his pant leg. Years of media training may have helped him suppress _some_ of his nervous ticks, but the leg bounce was one of those he never quite got rid of, so he tried his best keep it in check by holding his leg down. Reaching over, Raihan gently places his hands over Leon’s in an attempt to comfort him.

He knows the prospect of anything terrible happening to their daughter turns Leon into a nervous wreck, so he pleased once he feels him begins to relax a bit. Whatever the problem is, they’d get through it together.

“If you want, we could talk to Mr. Berry-”

“They said I have to battle Jacob…”

He cocks a brow at that. Jacob? That name sounded awful familiar…

“All he does is brag about his Stunky! He says I have dragon cooties and that the way I speak is weird and that Ein is weak and that I’m creepy for liking ghost-type pokemon! Yesterday he said my hair looked like a Corvisquire nest, and when I called him a stupidhead, _I_ was the one that got in trouble!” she rambles, and Ein nuzzles against her, clearly sensing her distress.

Oh… _that_ kid.

The last time Raihan had seen that kid, he was crying his eyes out because Hina apparently possessed a mean left hook. Hearing that he’s _still_ messing with their daughter doesn’t sit well with him, and it especially doesn’t sit well with him about _what_ he’s making fun of her for. She was not a fan of scissors getting anywhere near her hair outside of the occasional trim, so it had started to get longer and take on a quality Raihan liked to affectionately call ‘controlled chaos’.

She had definitely picked up a bit of Leon’s Postwick accent, and when first heard it could come off sounding a little strange. However, neither of them spoke it as roughly as Leon’s father did, so it was easy to understand (Raihan had _the worst_ time understanding the man when they first met). As for being ‘creepy’…like other kids she had little quirks, and hers just happened to be telling others random—usually morbid—facts about ghost-type pokemon.

Regardless, those things shouldn’t have been used as ammunition by the other kids to tease her, and Raihan has half a mind to storm up to the school and cause a scene. From the way he clinches his jaw, he knows Leon feels the same way.

“I…don’t care what he says about me…but Ein isn’t weak! He’s super strong and super cool! I want to kick Jacob’s as-” she quickly looks between the two of them with a mildly panicked expression before sitting up a little straighter, “-pear berry during Field Day t-to show him he’s wrong!”

Nice save.

Putting aside that she nearly swore (he and Leon were both guilty of dropping the occasional profanity, so he wasn’t getting chewed out for that later one), Raihan can’t help but stare at his daughter in shock since he’d expected a completely different answer.

“So, you actually _want_ to participate?” Leon asks as he gives Raihan a confused glance before focusing back on Hina.

“Yes!”

“Then why were you so upset this evening?”

At this she looks away, shifting in her seat as she fiddles with Ein’s fur.

“…Because you and Papa said I was supposed to ignore him, and I can’t do that if we battle…”

Oh.

* * *

After having a short, but serious, conversation, they—much to their daughter’s delight—give her permission to absolutely destroy the kid in battle if that’s what she wanted to do.

* * *

As expected, once Field Day actually arrived the media turned it into a spectacle. Yes, it was Hina’s first real battle, but it didn’t need to be broadcast across all of Galar. They were followed the entire walk to Hina’s school, and even though the paparazzi was a ‘respectable distance’ away, their daughter clung to their hands for dear life. She became very uneasy whenever the press came around, and outside of posting the occasional baby picture years ago, he and Leon kept photos of her off their social media pages.

They wanted to keep her as far away from the media as much as possible, but of course, other people thought every little thing that happened in their lives needed to be public knowledge. However, that didn’t mean they just took that kind of treatment lying down. As soon as they reached the school gates, he and Leon shared a look before releasing Duraludon and Charizard, and the two are given clear instructions to not let any of the paparazzi enter.

He knew the media would do anything for a good story, but he also knew none of them were stupid enough to think they could get past any pokemon that belonged to two of the strongest trainers in the region.

Dealing with kids was _a lot_ easier than dealing with adults, so when they were swarmed by Hina’s starry eyed schoolmates, they handled the situation with ease. One of the amusing things about the situation was that their usual gym leader and chairman shtick had little effect on their daughter; when she was younger, she had enjoyed how overly dramatic they could be, but now? She tittered between indifference to embarrassed, and Raihan never imagined he’d end up as an embarrassing parent…he doesn’t hate it though.

The kids were quickly corralled back to their respective groups by their teachers, and he and Leon apologized for unintentionally causing a disruption. They’re forgiven, and once they joined the rest of the parents and guardians off to the side, the mock tournament kicked off. The rules were simple: one class go battle against another, and whichever class had the most wins between the students would move on. Raihan was surprised to see how well the students faired in battle; their tactics were rough, which was to be expected since they were only seven, but the ease of which they adapted to the ever-changing flow of the fight was impressive.

The again, that’s exactly why they chose the school for Hina: regardless of how attention seeking some of them were, the teacher knew their stuff.

Unsurprisingly, Leon watched each match with rapt attention, and Raihan couldn’t help but smile fondly at his husband. When he was champion, Leon always did his best to inspire the next generation of trainers to give it their all, which was why he hadn’t been too broken about being dethroned (though Raihan had spent a good hour sitting with him on the locker room floor trying to calm him down). So can only imagine the glee he must being feeling as he watches the kids flourish in battle, and once it’s time for Hina to have her match, he’s practically vibrating with excitement.

They’re were advised by the staff to hold their applause till _after_ the battles were over, but Leon looks like he’s about to—understandably—disregard those instructions.

“Calm down, you don’t want to make her nervous, or worse, embarrass her,” he says when it looks like Leon is about to start shouting.

“I’m just trying to encourage her,” he pouts, “besides…I know you want to do the same.”

Raihan flushes, because, well, he isn’t wrong.

“Th-That’s not the point. Remember when your family came to your first match as champion?”

Now it’s Leon’s turn to blush.

“O-Oh…”

“ _Yeah_.”

Huffing out a ‘fine’, Leon turns his attention back to the back just as Hina and ~~that little brat~~ Jacob take their positions on opposite sides of the field. The teacher acting as referee goes over the rules again, that it’s a 1 vs. 1 battle and whichever pokemon was left standing would be the winner.

“I’ll try not to embarrass you too badly in front of your dads,” Jacob boasts, which causes Hina to frown.

A look of determination settles on her features, and from the corner on his eye Raihan can see Leon’s own widen a fraction before a grin slowly creep across his lips. He knows that look all too well; it’s the look he gets when he’s on the pitch and has already thought three moves ahead, and knew, without a doubt, that the battle would end in his favor. So of course, Raihan grins as well.

Hina would be fine.

Ein spends the beginning of the fight dodging one scratch attack after another, which clearly frustrates Jacob, and for a split second he feels sympathetic. Despite being docile in nature, the little dragon possessed an impressive amount of speed that could surprise and confuse anyone who wasn’t familiar with him. He and Leon were well acquainted with how well he dodged, and it wasn’t hard to tell that Ein had enjoyed their failed attempts to catch him.

Jacob’s frustration was clearly felt by his Stunky, and Raihan doesn’t speak pokemon, but the way it growls makes it seem like it’s cursing up a storm. A well-timed acid spray manages to land, but Ein shakes it off after stumbling for a few seconds and stands his ground. This further frustrates Jacob, who grits his teeth but seems to hesitate before calling out his next command.

“St-Stunky use…use smokescreen!” he desperately shouts.

The field is engulfed in a tick cloud of dark smoke that emits from his Stunky’s mouth, and Raihan quirks a brow at that decision. It’s not a bad move…

“Ha! How’s that? Your dumb dragon can’t dodge what it can’t see-!”

“That’s fine.”

“Huh?”

“Ein’s never been able to see.”

…if he was battling someone else. If he really wanted the upper hand, the move he should’ve used was poison gas, which would’ve affected Ein’s sense of smell and confused him temporarily. But the longer he watches the battle the clearer the situation becomes: Jacob had planned to use brute force alone to take down Hina, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he underestimated her enough to think this would be a quick fight.

Oh, how wrong he’d been.

“Okay, Ein! Use focus energy, then blow them away using dragon breath!” Hina finally gives her command, and Ein growls in acknowledgement.

“D-Don’t you dare let them, Stunky! Go in there and stop it!”

The Stunky dashes into the cloud of smoke, and even though the field is obscured, the sound of a struggle can be heard. Hina is tense as the seconds tick away, but then a bright light begins to emit from the smoky curtain, and she thrusts her little fist into the air.

“You can do it, Ein!”

The dragon breath he unleashes cuts through the thick smoke, and the powerful wind the beam produces blowing it away so everyone could see what’s happening on the field. Jacob’s Stunky takes the full brunt of the attack, and Raihan winces as he watches it roll across the ground before coming to a stop near its trainer. It tries to stagger to its feet, but ultimately it collapses back to the ground with a huff.

“Stunky is unable to battle, Deino wins!” their teacher announces, and Hina cheers as the parents clap to show their support.

Though just as she’s about to do a little victory dance with Ein, he and Leon stepped forward.

“Hina,” he calls out, which causes her to stop dead in her tracks.

“Remember what we talked about,” Leon says, and Raihan can hear the way the serious tone of his voice wavers.

They’re both wore their ‘stern dad’ faces to get their point across, but Raihan isn’t sure how long he can keep his up since they had just watched their daughter _win_ her first battle. A quick glance over to Leon confirms that he’s in the same boat, and it’s honestly a miracle he hasn’t sprinted over and scooped their daughter up in a Beware hug…because he certainly wants to.

Other than giving her permission to battle last night, the three of them had discussed how she could conduct herself. Win or lose, she would be a good sport and acknowledge her opponent even if he didn’t do the same. As much as Raihan would’ve loved to see her rub her win in the kid’s face, at the end of the day that’s what Jacob is: a kid. Of course, that didn’t excuse what he’d done—he and Leon had already agreed to have a nice, long sit down with his parents after school—but they wanted Hina to know that she could be a good sport even if her opponent wasn’t.

She rocks on her heels a few times while looking between them and Jacob, and after a few seconds she finally huff out a ‘fine’. She stiffly walks over to Jacob and his Stunky, and once close enough she extends her hands towards him.

“You did a good job, your Stunky was really cool looking-”

“Don’t touch me!” he shouts why roughly slapping her hand away, and Raihan can see Leon tensing up next to him.

Raihan takes it back: this kid isn’t a brat, he’s an _asshole_.

“I don’t want your stupid dragon cooties! And your dumb dragon barely did anything! You only won because he got a lucky shot-”

Just as their teacher makes a move to de-escalate the situation, Hina grabs Jacob’s wrist and pulls him in close. Raihan can’t see what kind of face she’s making since her back to them, but going by the horrified look on his face, she’s clearly putting the fear of Arceus into him. She leans in to whisper _something_ that has him quickly recalling his Stunky before scurrying back to the rest of his class, and this is enough to snap their teacher out of their dazed state.

Hina is ushered back to her class with Ein following right behind her, and he and Leon share a confused look because _what the hell was **that** about_?

Raihan spends the rest of the tournament thinking about what had transpired between his daughter, so much so that he nearly misses the end of it. Hina’s class ends up in seconds place, but all the students are awarded a little gold medal with a Pikachu on it for their efforts. Before they questioned Hina about he ‘little talk’ with Jacob, he and Leon spoke to his parents about their son’s treatment of their daughter.

They tried to play it off as ‘boys will be boys’, but Raihan was having none of that and told them ‘boys will be held accountable for their actions just like everyone else’. It was sad watching them come up with excuse after excuse before finally making their son apologize, and given how disingenuous it sounded, he was sure it wouldn’t be the last time they’d have to speak with Jacob’s parents. If anything, he hoped whatever Hina said to the kid would keep him in check for a short while.

Speaking of which…

“Sweetheart, what did you say to Jacob after you battled him?” he questions, and he doesn’t miss the way her face momentarily twists into a grimace before smoothing out.

She’s currently clinging to Leon as he carries her on his back, and the entire walk home she had talked about everything _but_ the battle she’d won.

“I told him that if he keeps talkin’ bad about Ein, I’m gonna summon Giratina and have it drag him to the Distortion World in the middle of the night.”

…Well…

“Um, Honey? I don’t think you can just summon Giratina like that,” Leon says.

“He doesn’t know that. Besides, he’s the one that called me a Hex Maniac once, I’m just using it against him,” she says without batting an eye, which causes Leon to snort.

There’s something deeply amusing about how nonchalant she sounds, like she hadn’t just threatened to have a legendary pokemon spirit her school mate away to a dark abyss. Since it doesn’t exactly feel right to reprimand her—she hadn’t thrown a punch—all Raihan can do is shake his head and chuckle.

“Oh! Can I ask Uncle Allister to send his Gengar-”

“ _No_ ,” they say in unison.

Hina ends up pouting the rest of the way home.


End file.
